New King of King's Island.

Jobe Bittman of San Francisco Competes against His Wife and His Best Friend to Win $100,000 in Cincinnati, as 5th Round Champion of Gold Rush on AOL.com

Over 1.5 Million in Gold Still up for Grabs;

Play to Stake Your Claim

DULLES, Va. & LOS ANGELES -- Jobe Bittman of San Francisco, who competed in the latest Gold Competition held in Cincinnati, has been named the 5th round winner of Gold Rush (www.aol.com/goldrush), the groundbreaking seven-week interactive game from AOL and Mark Burnett, where players can literally turn their pop culture know-how into gold.

As the 5th round champion, Bittman has won $100,000 in gold or cash (he chose cash) and will return to play in the game's finale round in November to compete for an additional $1 million. In a Gold Rush first, Bittman faced off against his wife, Trish Bittman, 37, a mother of two, and his college buddy, Marc Malone, 33, an investment banking consultant, both of San Francisco, in a "Gold Competition" round finale shot at Paramount's King Island Amusement Park, outside of Cincinnati.

All three were "Gold Buddies," helping each other during the online play that led up to the Cincinnati round finale. During the live "Gold Competition," however, the three had to depend on their own devices - and pick a new "Gold Buddy" if they wanted to call-in for assistance during the challenges.

"I was the first to solve the final online challenge and then immediately told my husband, Jobe, who then in turn told Marc," said Trish Bittman. "When all three of us were notified that we were round 5 finalists, we were overjoyed and ready to head to Cincinnati to fight for the gold."

Jobe Bittman dominated the three rounds of game play. He won round one by first completing a slider puzzle, revealing a rebus, which he then identified as Dr. Johnny Fever from the 1970s sitcom "WKRP".

In round two, the online game's Charader - a recurring character who does charades of popular films, songs, personalities and television shows - made a live appearance and charaded the song "Rock the Kasbah" and "Donald Trump" amongst others. For every charade solved, players received a clue.

Jobe, followed by his wife, Trish, moved onto the third and final round after identifying Evel Knievel. In the final round, Jobe and Trish had to use a wheel decoder to decipher a series of Cincinnati-themed phrases: "Reds World Series Wins," "Springer Mayoral Terms," and "Seabiscuit Oscar Nominations." Jobe was the first to decode the phrases and then assign the correct numbers. For the final test, Jobe had to correctly name the total number of siblings of Ohio native Carmen Electra. After successfully answering "5" (also the number of Reds' World Series wins), he was able to unlock the gate and claim the gold.

"I would have never gotten to this point without the help of my wife, Trish, or my buddy, Marc," said Bittman of winning Gold Rush. "I would encourage everyone to work with those closest to them."

Bittman, 32, an IT manager, resides in San Francisco with his wife, Trish, and their two daughters, three-year-old Zeta, and one-and-a-half-year-old Nita. He is a graduate of Florida State University with a degree in English Literature and a minor in French.

Beginning today (Friday, October 6), the 5th round $100,000 "Gold Competition" will air, free on demand, on AOL.COM/GOLDRUSH (http://www.aol.com/goldrush) through November. New players can begin playing any time.

"Clearly Gold Rush players have the insight to work together to advance in the game," said Gold Rush producer Mark Burnett. "And with seven more chances to win the $100,000 and qualify for the million dollar final round, there's still time to join the game."

Gold Rush[TM], hosted by Entertainment Tonight Co-Anchor Mark Steines, asks players to answer a series of pop culture challenges using clues scattered throughout the world of media and pop culture - in CBS Television Network programming, popular magazines, radio shows, and on AOL.com.

The first three players in each of the first 12 rounds to answer the questions correctly are whisked away to a specially selected location to compete in a fast-paced, pop culture-focused battle for $100,000 in gold. In the 13th round, the first 12 winners return, along with 6 new contestants, to vie for the $1 million grand prize.

Log onto www.aol.com/goldrush for more details and rules on how to play and win.

About Mark Burnett

Mark Burnett is the leading producer of reality content for both primetime television and the internet. Mark Burnett has revolutionized television with hits such as Eco-Challenge, Survivor, The Apprentice, The Contender, Rock Star, Martha Stewart in syndication and On the Lot. Mark Burnett has also partnered with AOL on the eagerly anticipated adventure Gold Rush, the first-ever unscripted project to be produced exclusively for the internet. Mark Burnett has also successfully reintroduced product placement as an integral part of each of his shows and his companies have garnered a total of 43 Emmy[R] nominations since 2001. Mark Burnett was listed as the #1 Most Valuable Player by TV Guide and in Time Magazine's Top 100 most influential people in the world today.

About AOL

AOL is a global Web services company that operates some of the most popular Web destinations, offers a comprehensive suite of free software and services, runs the country's largest Internet access business, and provides a full set of advertising solutions. A majority-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., AOL LLC is based in Dulles, Virginia. AOL and its subsidiaries also have operations in Europe, Canada and Asia. Learn more at AOL.com.

For free hi-res stills of Jobe Bittman, and all previous Gold Rush winners, please log onto www.aolepk.com/goldrush.